CCTV giving police eyes around the city

FINALLY the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras set up in Port Moresby for Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) are now operational.
CCTV is a modern-day device that monitors the presence and activities of people live, in its vicinity.
Homeowners and commercial business organisations use it for enhanced security purposes.
CCTV cameras prove highly instrumental in locating people engaged in criminal and suspicious activities.
It has the capability to catch criminals live and serves as great legal evidence.
With the installation of CCTV security equipment, it is not only possible to keep a check on offenders, but also to prevent any objectionable thing from actually happening. CCTV footage helps to track down such culprits.
Such surveillance systems function as deterrent.
The Chinese government, as part of its aid to PNG, installed about 200 CCTV cameras along the main Apec routes in Port Moresby.
National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop on Friday told reporters police can now monitor illegal activities in notorious places like the Gordon and Koki markets, Badili, Boroko and other places that are prone to petty crimes like bag-snatching.
CCTV appears to deter the criminal in offences such as vehicle crime or burglary, perhaps on the basis that they perceive the risk of apprehension to outweigh the benefits.
Whether a person has actually committed or is about to commit an offense such as theft, the same is caught on CCTV and the identity is exposed.
CCTV equipment keeps an area under constant surveillance. It connects that area to a particular recording source.
The images captured on CCTV are not broadcasted publicly.
Lae city has started using CCTV cameras and the feedback has been positive with arrests made over pretty crimes and traffic offences near the Lae market. The offenders were monitored by using the CCTV.
In Port Moresby, the long-range cameras could track down activities at roundabouts and even markets, citing petty crime hotspots like Badili, 2-Mile, Koki, Gordon and others.
This will also give NCDC the bird’s eye view on betel nuts vending and spittle, and graffiti, while the Central and metropolitan commands will look at bigger crimes.
Parents have been warned to take responsibility of their children who were engaged in vandalising private and public properties with spray paints as they will be caught using the CCTV capabilities.
The introduction of cameras to monitor traffic movement, starting with the major road arteries in Port Moresby, will greatly boost the national programmes promoting road safety.
Not only that, it will serve as a deterrent to drivers who, because of the lack police visibility on
busy roads and intersections, belligerently flout traffic rules every day.
Police and road traffic officers will find that it will make their work easier.
Developed countries rely on traffic cameras to monitor among other things traffic flow and traffic violations.
They are easily detected through the use of video surveillance technology.
The key, however, is to ensure the CCTV camera system is well maintained and functional at all times.
There is no point in installing them if they cannot be used or maintained.